BAHR, Donald Morris "Don"

BAHR, BAIRD, GUTIERREZ, LOPEZ

Posted By: Sharon R. Becker (email)
Date: 10/26/2017 at 11:15:02

Obituary ~ Donald Morris "Don" Bahr

The Globe Gazette
Mason City, Cerro Gordo County, Iowa
Sunday, November, 06, 2016

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Donald Morris Bahr, of Colorado Springs, formerly of Mason City, passed away at the age of 76 in Colorado Springs, Oct. 30, 2016, with his wife and son at the bedside.

He was born and raised in Sioux City and Mason City, Iowa. He graduated from Mason City High School in 1958. He was educated at Harvard University, where he met his wife, Dilli. They married and the summer after college set off for Arizona in a tiny black car.

Don’s interest in indigenous cultures became a lifelong immersion into the O’odham, their language, their songs and stories, especially in the village of Santa Rosa where he and his family had many friends.

At the age of 27, he joined the faculty of the Anthropology Department at Arizona State University, and kept the same small, dusty and book-filled office until his retirement in 2006.

Don Bahr had a keen unconventional mind and a sharp tongue, tempered and softened by his kindness and constant sense of humor. Reading, sitting in a rocking chair, smoking his pipe, thinking and writing — that’s what he liked the most, besides walking in the desert and singing O’odham songs.

The last decade of his life was difficult because a stroke took his ability to write. His wife Dilli kept him comfortable, engaged with the world around him, and read to him constantly. He had friends and family who provided distraction, and he was always surrounded by his books and art.

Don is pre-deceased by his parents, Herbert Morris Bahr and Maxine Baird Bahr.

He is survived by his wife of over 50 years, Adelaide (Dilli); his son Paolo, with Shane, Sofia and Emma; his daughter Maria, with Billy and Teddy. He is also survived and remembered by his older brother, John, and John’s children and grandchildren.

He was enveloped by the close-knit family of Gustavo and Raquel Gutierrez, who pre-deceased him, and the extended family of the late Baptisto Lopez in Santa Rosa, Arizona.

Services will be held in Arizona at a later date.

Transcription by Sharon R. Becker, October of 2017

Cerro Gordo Obituaries maintained by Lynn Diemer-Mathews.
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